A new ticket sales law makes it harder for fans to throw away their concert or sporting event tickets.
Fans in one state are being restricted by a new resale law and they are not happy.
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Consumers who buy tickets to concerts or games in Massachusetts and later change their plans will have more difficulty selling them because of the new law.
The law, which is part of a state economic development bill signed by Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday, provides companies like Ticketmaster greater control over ticket resale.
The new law limits who sports fans and concert-goers can transfer their tickets to if they are unable to attend.
For example, if a customer purchased tickets to an event from Ticketmaster or SeatGeek and can no longer go, the law requires them to resell the tickets on the same platform they were purchased on, provided the company alerts them to the policy first.
This means fans can no longer resell tickets on secondary markets such as StubHub.
Consumer watchdog groups, such as MASSPIRG, disagree with this restriction, arguing that consumers should have the right to do what they want with their tickets.
“I can't resell it to anyone I want, and I can't give it to my friends or family if I can't go, so it really hurts the fans,” MASSPIRG's Deirdre Cummings said.
“Ticketmaster will buy it at a lower face value and then sell it at a higher price,” he told local CBS affiliate WBZ-TV. “This is what keeps ticket prices high.”
Likewise, customers are unhappy with the new law in Massachusetts, arguing that it limits consumer freedom.
“If someone else wants to go to that show, they're willing to pay market price for it, and that opportunity is between those two consumers. Ticketmaster doesn't need to have anything to do with that,” customer Shawn Eagle told WBZ.
“Fans and ticket holders got the wrong end of the deal,” Cummings said.
Strong play
On the other side of the argument, Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation, supported the new law.
One Live Nation executive claimed the goal was to deter ticket scalping.
“It's about whether professional ticket brokers and the ticket resale sites that support them can use their bots and all their other methods to take thousands and thousands of tickets intended for real fans and instead put them into resale marketplaces where they go,” said Dan Wall, a senior vice president at Live Nation. For Corporate and Regulatory Affairs: “to double the price.”
The company said that the new law protects artists, sports teams and fans.
“It's not about someone getting sick and not being able to go to the show,” Wall said.
It's about whether professional ticket brokers and the ticket resale sites that support them can use their bots and all their other methods to take thousands and thousands of tickets intended for real fans and instead put them on the resale markets where they would otherwise go. Double the price.”
Dan Wall
Although the law is intended to curb scalpers, Ticketmaster and other platforms may benefit financially because they control resale.
For example, if customers sell their tickets through Ticketmaster, the company can buy them back at a lower price and resell them at a higher price, potentially making twice as much profit.
Ticket distributor StubHub opposes the new law, calling it anti-competitive and arguing that it reinforces Ticketmaster's already dominant position in the ticket market, which has raised concerns in the past.
The Department of Justice previously sued Live Nation in May for claiming a monopoly in the ticketing industry.
“We allege that Live Nation relies on illegal and anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopoly control over the live events industry in the United States to the detriment of fans, artists, small promoters, and venue operators,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. .
Some believe the company already has too much control over ticket prices and the resale market, and critics say the new Massachusetts law further strengthens its grip on the market.
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Many Ticketmaster fans have encountered issues on the platform.
A Taylor Swift fan “couldn't even log in” because $792 worth of tickets disappeared from her Ticketmaster account after an error message appeared.
Another music fan is out with $1,200 after his concert tickets were stolen from his Ticketmaster account.
